2019-2020年九年級(jí)英語(yǔ)上冊(cè) Module 3 Sporting life Paralympic Games文章背景材料 外研版In 1948, Sir Ludwig Guttmann organized a sports petition involving World War II veterans with a spinal cord injury in Stoke Mandeville, England. Four years later, petitors fromthe Netherlandsjoined the games and an international movement was born. Olympic style games for athletes with a disability were organized for the first time in Rome in 1960, now called Paralympics. In Toronto in 1976, other disability groups were added and the idea of merging together different disability groups for international sport petitions was born. In the same year, the first Paralympic Winter Games took place in Sweden.Today, the Paralympics are elite sport events for athletes from six different disability groups. They emphasize, however, the participants athletic achievements rather than their disability. The movement has grown dramatically since its first days. The number of athletes participating in Summer Paralympic Games has increased from 400 athletes from 23 countries in Rome in 1960 to 3806 athletes from 136 countries in Athens in xx.The Paralympic Games have always been held in the same year as the Olympic Games. Since the Seoul 1988 Paralympic Games and the Albertville 1992 Winter Paralympic Games they have also taken place at the same venues as the Olympics. On 19 June xx, an agreement was signed between IOC and IPC securing this practice for the future. From the xx bid process onwards, the host city chosen to host the Olympic Games will be obliged to also host the Paralympics.TheChinese city of Beijing will host the next xx Paralympic Games, whereas theWinter Paralympics xx will be in Vancouver, Canada. London will host the Paralympics in xx.